With the explosive growth of the Internet, many customers have desired to use the larger bandwidth of a cable television network to connect to the Internet and other computer networks. Cable modems, such as those provided by 3Com Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif., and others offer customers higher-speed connectivity to the Internet, an intranet, local area networks (“LANs”) and other computer networks via cable television networks. These cable modems currently support a data connection to the Internet and other computer networks via a cable television network with a data rate of up to 30+ Mbps which is a much larger data rate than can be supported by a modem used over a standard telephone line.
When a cable modem is connected to a data-over-cable system, it must first gain access to the system by undergoing an initialization procedure before it is permitted to transmit data. A part of the initialization procedure includes a ranging process to determine the appropriate transmission parameters for its data transfer. This process involves sending a ranging message at an appropriate time interval, referred to as initial maintenance interval. Because the cable modem does not know beforehand the loss between it and a cable modem termination system (“CMTS”), the cable modem initially transmits at a minimum specified level and then increases the level throughout the ranging process. The ranging process is performed so that the cable modem does not transmit at levels that can overdrive station equipment and cause impairments to other channels. After transmitting the ranging message, the cable modem awaits an acknowledgement from the CMTS. If the cable modem receives no acknowledgement from the CMTS, the cable modem raises its power level and transmits a ranging message again. This process is repeated until the modem receives an acknowledgement from the CMTS, at which time the cable modem moves into the next phase of ranging, known as station maintenance.
A typical cable modem, however, has no prior network knowledge of the data-over-cable system when the initial ranging process is performed. The cable modem is, therefore, typically unable to select the proper transmit level on the first attempt. It may in fact take many attempts to select the proper transmit level if the required transmit level is sufficiently high or the increments for increasing the power level are small. In addition, since initial maintenance intervals are contention regions, i.e. multiple modems can attempt ranging within the interval, cable modem ranging messages may collide and be ignored by the CMTS, resulting in multiple attempts at transmission at a given power level before the CMTS receives a ranging message. These factors can lead to long ranging times, especially when there are many cable modems attempting to range.
It is, therefore, desirable to improve the ranging phase of a cable modem, by reducing the time for the cable modem to range.